YouTube didn’t just get a mammoth deal with Warner Music Group. The video-sharing site got schooled in how to talk in press release, and what to call its new intellectual property inspector.
The deal also includes access to Warner’s music video catalog, behind-the-scenes footage and other Warner programming. The two companies will share ad revenue generated from viewing.
Warner says the deal makes it “the first music company to harness YouTube’s…service to commercially distribute its music video catalogand the first global media company to broadly embrace the power and creativity of user-generated content.” (Ellipses added as magic BS meter tips too far to the right.)
But that doesn’t mean any use of Warner’s stuff is fair game. The company will authorize the use of its content through a new YouTube technology called a “content identification and royalty reporting system” to be in place by the end of the year.
In the best translation so far of press release-ese, Valleywag’s Nick Douglas calls this a magical “copyrighted-material-finding machine.” None of Warner’s content will be available until this magic machine is in operation.
YouTube co-founder and CEO, Chad Hurley, said something about milestones, shifting paradigms and a new media movement. Then he said:
“By providing a new distribution opportunity, we are paving the way for media companies to harness the vast financial potential of user-generated content on YouTube. We are thrilled that WMG had the vision to be the first music company, in partnership with its artists, to support the use of their content within user videos and to allow our community to interact with WMG music in new creative ways.”
Teaching the rookie YouTube CEO a thing or two about how to talk in a press release, WMG chairman and CEO Edgar Bronfman, Jr. said something about embracing innovation, consumer empowerment, two-way dialogues, and transforming entertainment and media forever. See? Isn’t that more exciting than shifting paradigms?
Then he said:
“As user-generated content becomes more prevalent, this kind of partnership will allow music fans to celebrate the music of their favorite artists, enable artists to reach consumers in new ways, and ensure that copyright holders and artists are fairly compensated.”
You provide the BS upfront, see, and then tell them what you’re talking about. Hurley had it backwards. Start with BS, end with the cool part. They won’t know what hit’em, but they’ll pretend to get it.
YouTube will offer the magic copyrighted-material-finding machine to other content creators, like TV networks and movie studios, in the future. The new architecture will offer those content creators:
- Copyright identification tools to help identify their content on the site
Automated audio identification technology to locate their works within user videos on the site
The opportunity to authorize and monetize the use of their works within the user-generated content on the site
Reporting and tracking systems for royalties, etc
And a promise of more convoluted four-page press releases in a semi-foreign language.
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